I was recently asked the difference between persuasive preaching and manipulative preaching. I responded by saying, “The difference lies in the means we use to persuade.” The Word of God is the only legitimate means of persuasion.

Legitimate persuasion is cognitive—stirring the mind with reasonable truth. Attempting to convince people with tear-jerking stories or guilt trips takes an unfair advantage and wrongly muddles their thinking. That does not mean we cannot use all the communication skills available to us, but we should avoid playing on people's emotions. These are artificial and should be avoided because they bypass the reason.

The goal of preaching is to motivate people to choose change because it is reasonable and right before God, not because they have been manipulated into some momentary feeling or action. We persuade them from the Scriptures to choose the right course of action.

In 1 Timothy 4:13, Paul writes to Timothy, "Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching." What he tells Timothy is to read the text, explain the text, and apply the text. That verse is a call to persuasive, expository preaching.

Stories are fine as long as they are true. I don't believe Jesus ever told a lie to teach a truth. I like stories but remember this--we have no promise that the Holy Spirit empowers stories as He does with His Word.

Ultimately, however, our sermons will only be as persuasive as our lives. A traveling speaker who does not remain in one place long enough for people to get to know him may be able to "fake" it without a consistent life to back up his message, (though this is regrettable). Those of us who preach to the same people week after week, however, cannot do that. Our people know us, and our persuasiveness depends on the quality of our lives.

THE MIDDLE EAST

In 2006 I wrote a message regarding the crisis in the Middle East. Here is a portion of what I wrote;

We must be reminded every moment of every day that God is in charge! Nothing that is taking place is taking God by surprise. I have no doubt, in fact I can guarantee that events in the Middle East will have growing and lasting effect on our economy and our conveniences. In other words, our comfort zones are going to be challenged more than they ever have been before. If we think that because we live over here we can’t be touched by all that is going on over there, then we’ve got our heads in the sand, folks. But in the midst of all of that God is still in charge.

Some of the events taking place have been orchestrated by God. Other events are those things that are the evil plans of men. But we can be assured that God uses them all in our lives for the purpose of conforming us into the Christians he wants us to be.

God’s got a plan and we are right in the middle of it. His plan is that as the world around us becomes more and more desperate, you and I become more and more available with the solution. We cannot isolate ourselves from what is going on in the world. These things are happening within the plan of Almighty God and our purpose is not just to remain people pursuing the American dream but as Christians who are missionaries to the rest of the world.

And today, seven years later, the players have changed but the situation is the same. And if we're not careful, we will get distracted from what is really happening. God is still in control, things are moving according to His time frame, and it will end exactly...exactly as we read in Scripture. And remember this--if we allow ourselves to view Islam as our enemy we will cease to view them as our mission field.

God help us to remain faithful to Him.

GracePointe and the November Election

One political convention down and one more to go. The race is on to the White House and once again, political pundits are saying, "This is the most important election of our lives."

If this is the most important election of our lives, then that would beg the question to be asked--how involved should pastors and churches be in the political process?

My best answer goes something like this:

I am grateful to be an American. I’m a card-carrying, red-blooded citizen of the United States of America and proud of it. But first and foremost, I’m a citizen of heaven, and let me tell you what that means.

It means—no matter how great or sincere the efforts, we can’t protect or expand the Kingdom of Christ by our political system. We are involved in a spiritual battle against ungodly ideologies aimed directly at God and His people and the only effective weapon we have is His Word.

It means—God has not called us to wage a cultural war that would seek to transform our country into a Christian nation. Instead, He has called the church to bring sinful people to salvation through Jesus Christ. If we do not evangelize the lost and make disciples of new converts, nothing else we do for people—no matter how beneficial it seems—has any eternal consequence.

When the church takes a stance that emphasizes political activism and social moralizing, it always diverts energy and resources away from evangelization. Invariably, believers find themselves feeling hostile, not only to unsaved government leaders with whom they disagree, but also antagonistic toward the unsaved residents of that culture—neighbors and fellow citizens they ought to love, pray for, and share the gospel with.

Focusing on earthly methods to promote change, and resorting to external efforts of lobbying and intimidation to achieve some sort of “Christian morality” in society is not our calling—and has no eternal value. Only the gospel rescues sinners from sin, death, and hell.